9 Comments

Yea, its too early for the live action version trailer yet. But, I am not too hopeful. Frankly, I never cared for Green Lantern, its a pretty dumb concept to begin with. I mean a guy with a green power ring that is vulnerable to … the color freaking YELLOW? So, what, I can take him out with a New York taxi??

I’d need a GL expert to confirm this, but I think they did away with the weakness to yellow in the comics (or maybe that was just in the SuperFriends series). I’m liking the made-for-DVD movies that DC is putting out, though I haven’t seen Wonder Woman.

fizikoApril 14, 2009 @ 3:34 pm

I’ve read about a quarter of the Green Lantern issues published to date, and I’m on track to read them all by August 1. Do I count as an expert?

The yellow vulnerability was pretty cheesy, especially in the early days. By the time the 1970s rolled around, Denny O’Neil had realized this and Hal just stopped encountering yellow stuff. After the death of Superman, when Hal snapped and became Parallax, destroying the Corps in the process. Ganthet gave Kyle Rayner the last remaining ring, and that one eliminated both problems: it wasn’t vulnerable to yellow, and the ring needed recharged when the energy was used up, not every 24 hours whether it was used or not.

This stayed until “Green Lantern: Rebirth.” In this, it was established that yellow was a vulnerable point for the Corps for good reason: just as green embodies willpower, yellow embodies fear. Before Kyle Rayner, Green Lanterns were selected based on being honest and fearless. They didn’t recognize fear or the effects it had on them, and therefore, couldn’t deal with yellow properly. (Geoff Johns explains it far better than I, I assure you.) That story restored the Green Lantern Corps while bringing back Hal Jordan.

As it stands now, yellow is still tricky for recruits who haven’t learned to recognize and deal with fear, but experienced ring bearers are no longer troubled by it. It was the first piece of the emotional spectrum that’s playing a big part of Blackest Night, and that is shaping up to be a pretty impressive crossover. Expect issue by issue reviews of that one to start with “Blackest Night #0,” assuming I get to my local comic shop fast enough to grab one on Free Comic Book Day.